


noa fruit

by i_am_sion



Series: ashedue week 2020 [2]
Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-06
Updated: 2020-04-06
Packaged: 2021-03-02 00:15:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,559
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23505961
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/i_am_sion/pseuds/i_am_sion
Summary: dedue meets ashe's younger siblings.
Relationships: Ashe Duran | Ashe Ubert/Dedue Molinaro
Series: ashedue week 2020 [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1690933
Comments: 1
Kudos: 38





	noa fruit

Allison and Cameron came to visit Garreg Mach to surprise their big brother… who was off on a mission for the weekend and wouldn’t be back before they had to return home.

Dimitri was left in charge of the Blue Lions class for the week, and he was at a loss for what to do with them. There wasn’t much to entertain children at the monastery unless they were delegated chores, and what kind of host would he be if he made them clean while on a trip away from home?

“Would you… like to visit the library?” He asked, kneeling so that they were at eye level with each other.

“No thank you… Y-Your Highness.”

The prince laughed. They were very much like Ashe. “You can just call me Dimitri. It’s alright.”

They shook their little silver heads in tandem. That would be too familiar. It appeared that all of the Ubert children had crowns of silver hair, peridot eyes, and tender freckles on fair skin. Delicately built and precious. Allison was the youngest of the three, the baby of the family who was no doubt spoiled to the high heavens, and Cameron the middle child, the most boisterous but still a tad timid by most accounts. If one were to put Ashe and his brother and sister side by side, they would look like nesting dolls, descending in height and varying only subtly in the face.

“Okay then…” Dimitri pursed his lips, wracking his brain. “Would you… like to go fishing?”

The idea seemed to excite Cameron, but Allison shrunk behind her brother, shaking her head yet again.

“Oh, she’s scared of fish,” Cameron explained.

“I see.” What do little ten year old girls like then? “Would you like to… see the horses?” 

Horses also scared Allison, apparently.

What to do… Dedue would probably know how to take care of picky children. He took care of Dimitri after all, and he was, suffice to say, a rather difficult one.

“Oh! Dedue!” He exclaimed, hitting his palm with his fist as he was struck with a brilliant idea. “You guys have come a long way. Are you hungry?”

Their large round peridot eyes widened, and they finally nodded.

“Excellent. Follow me.”

The prince led the two little Ubert children by the hand through the entrance hall. They lagged behind a little bit, clinging together, and Dimitri waited for them patiently to catch up. They seemed distracted by the high ceilings and intricate architecture. Simply cowed into silence by the immensity of everything-- the history that surrounded them, the grandeur of the knights passing by.

Ashe was the same way when he first came to the Academy, and the similarities made Dimitri smile.

They reached the dining hall, and students left and right cooed and “aww”ed at the tiny Ashe clones following their crown prince. He pulled them into the kitchen, where his lifelong friend was in charge of cooking dinner for the day. 

“Dedue,” Dimitri called his name to announce his presence.

Dedue set down his cooking utensil, turned, and bowed. “Your Highness.”

“It’s _just_ Dimitri,” he told him, looking at the two small children that tailed him. He didn’t want them following Dedue’s example.

Dedue made a noncommittal hum. "How can I be of service?"

Dimitri gestured to the children behind him. "This is Cameron and Allison of House Lonato."

"House Lonato?" He cocked a brow at that. “Like Ashe?”

“These are his younger brother and sister. I thought perhaps it would be best if they could watch you cook, and if you wouldn’t mind making them a snack?”

He nodded towards the two, and Allison cowered behind Cameron. She had never seen such a tall man. He was probably as tall as two of her standing on her shoulders and then some. Probably weighed about ten of her too! 

Allison whimpered, and Dimitri took that as his cue to avoid any sort of meltdown or tantrum she was about to pitch.

“Oh, uhm, it’s almost time for my training session with Catherine. So, uh… I’ll be on my way.” 

And just like that, he was gone.

Dedue couldn’t complain. It was obvious the little girl was afraid of him. He was sure even someone as young as these two had their own scary stories about people _like him._ Tales that parents, scarred from the tragic loss of their king, passed on to their children before bed. ‘If you don’t sleep, the people of Duscur will kidnap and eat you~’ or some… horrible, _horrible_ thing along those lines. Horrible and untrue. Ashe had told him as much.

He had hoped that perhaps, they would be like their older brother in the regard that… Ashe never treated him like an outsider. Never quivered in fear at his tall stature or stern mien or the color of his skin. But that didn’t seem to be the case, and so he looked away and busied himself with his work, pretending they weren’t there. If he couldn’t see them, they couldn’t see him.

It was the middle child who broke the silence first.

“That smells really good!”

Dedue didn’t know how to respond to that, so he simply nodded his way.

“What’re you making?”

“I am making a Nirvana cake for tonight’s dessert.”

The idea of sugar pulled Allison a little bit out of her brother’s shadow. “Is it sweet?” She asked.

“Quite.”

“What’s it made of?”

“Noa fruit… Eggs, flour…” 

“What’s a Noa fruit?”

Dedue could feel himself grow tired already from all these questions. Rather than answer this one, he simply cut open a fruit and sliced it into even pieces. He placed them onto a plate and let the two of them have a taste.

“Blech! It’s bitter!”

“Yes, but then…” Dedue sprinkles a dash of sugar onto it and lets them try again.

“Oh! That’s a lot better.”

The man was not a fan of sweets himself, but he tolerated Nirvana cakes for this reason. Though Noa fruit was the main ingredient, it couldn’t have possibly been a good dish without the other ingredients backing it up, each flavor tied to the other, flowing gently over the tongue.

“What’s your name?” Cameron asked, his mouth full of sweetened fruit.

“I am Dedue,” he replied, sparing them a glance as he continued to prepare the breading for the cake..

“How do you spell that?”

He spelled it for them.

“Oh! Like in the letters Big Brother sends us!” Allison exclaimed. She seemed very proud she was able to decipher Dedue’s name. 

That piqued his interest. “Ashe-- your brother, I mean. He has told you about me?”

“Oh, yeah! Yeah, he talks about you aaaaaall the time!” Cameron said. He spread his arms out wide just to emphasize what he meant when he said _all the time._

“He’s told us that-- He told that, uhm…” Allison swayed a little as she stammered, swinging her arms around her. “You cook really good food and-- and uhm… And… uhm… He says that uhm--”

Cameron interrupted her, pointing a slice of fruit at Dedue. “He says that you’re like… A knight from the stories!”

A knight..? 

The idea made something in Dedue’s chest flutter.

To be compared to the fairy tales that Ashe loved so much...

“Yeah!” Allison cheered with a fist in the air.

“Do you slay beasts, Sir Dedue?”

Sir Dedue. The name makes him huff out a breath of a laugh. “If His Majesty needs of it.”

“That’s so cool!” They said together.

“Big Brother,” panted the little girl excitedly, “he’s really good with a bow! He says he wants to protect people.”

“He does indeed,” Dedue said. “That is what he is doing right now on his mission.”

He remembered the task at hand. He was supposed to be cooking, not talking about… Ashe. Though the topic was… of interest to him. Dedue returned to his Nirvana cake.

“Can I see what you’re working on?” Allison asked him. It seemed like she had gotten over her fear of him pretty quick thanks to some good food…. 

Dedue wished most of the world’s conflicts could be solved by filling people’s bellies, but things were never that simple. He nodded and lifted her onto the counter so she could watch him mix in the mashed Noa fruit into the cake molds. 

“Big brother was right. You’re very handsome up close,” she told him, and the remark caught Dedue completely off guard.

“I am sorry..?”

“Oh, yeah!” Cameron piped in from wherever he had wandered off from. His head was in the pantry. Their plate of fruit had been practically licked clean. “He’s always saying things like! ‘Oo Dedue looked so handsome in the greenhouse today’ or ‘Dedue was so cool in his evening wear for last night’s’ uh…. War council! That’s the word. War council!”

Dedue held his breath. No one had really… called him handsome before. 

The flutter in his chest from before returned in full force.

“Wow! You’re smiling!” Allison leaned ever closer to him to watch. “Do you think Ashe liiiikes you? Are you embaaaarrassed?”

“I am not.” He was. “Careful. You will fall.”

“Oh! He _is_ smiling!” Cameron pointed, jumping up and down.

“Are you two gonna get maaaaarriieeeeed~?”

Dedue shook his head and turned away. If he couldn’t see them, they couldn’t see him.


End file.
